Nissan plans for 200 dealerships by FY2014-15, says Mr. Ajay Raghuvanshi, Vice President - Sales, Nissan India

Nissan India’s Vice President for Marketing, Sales and Dealer Development, Mr. Ajay Raghuvanshi talks to us about Datsun’s reception, Indian customers’ decision makings, Nissan’s plans of expansion and more.

How has the response and customer expectation for Datsun been so far?

Datsun has been doing really well and we are getting over 20,000 to 25,000 enquiries regarding the car every month. We are selling almost 2000 Datsun Go cars every month, which is a good number to start with. Dealers are reporting that the walk-ins have increased by 20 to 30% over April. In the last ten days of May, the customer walk-ins have increased around 20% and going forward it should sustain and go further.

With the segment that Datsun Go comes under, people think a lot before buying a car. They inquire about the car, ask their friends and colleagues about it and there are lots of sentiments. And when they see that Datsun is from the Nissan brand, their confidence grows and they are able to make a wise decision.

Most of the customers in the B-segment are first time buyers. As a first-time car buyer, the customer has to know that how much ever money he is spending on the car, it should be a safe investment. His money should assure him for the next 4 to 5 years on safety, driving and mobility. And if he has to resell the car after that, he still should get an assurance that the car will fetch some value. He gets all this from Datsun. When he sees Datsun is a part of Nissan, which already has a great history of 80 years, he gets the assurance.

Is there a target that you are looking at with Datsun Go? How is the reception for the accessories package that come with Go?

There is no desirable number that we have targeted. We have had a good beginning and for now, our strategy is to showcase the car to the customer. We are getting almost 25,000 enquiries a month and 10% of conversion to sales from that is good.

We have three variants for Datsun Go - D, A and T. Currently, the T variant is the best selling of the lot. The accessories packages that are offered with Datsun Go have been well received by the customers. So far, customers have been buying on an average of Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 worth of accessories.

What are your plans for dealership expansion? How do you think the Nissan-Datsun shared dealership will favour you?

The shared dealerships of Nissan and Datsun are going good. We have the same dealer dividing the dealership space between the two brands with Nissan getting more space as it has more models. If customer wants to look at any of the brands’ cars, he can test drive any of them. Both the brands are helping each other.

We currently have 128 dealerships and the plan is to open 200 dealerships by FY2014-15. Out of these, around 40% will be in Tier 1 cities and the balance will be for Tier 2 and 2 cities and towns. Today, rural India is contributing almost 25% to the car industry and this is growing faster than the urban India. So, everyone has to be present there to service the customers.

If the market requires it, we will go for separate dealerships. Everything is customer driven. If a customer in a remote town needs it, we will go there.

But don’t you think Nissan Micra and Datsun Go sales will cannibalize each other?

Together, the new Micra and the Micra Active are selling around 1,000 cars a month. And it does not affect the Datsun Go sales as they belong to different pricing points and offer different features. It is completely a customer’s decision to buy which car.

What are your expectations from the new government?

We are hopeful that the government continues to offer duty cuts such as sub-4 meter models and others. If the auto industry is revived, the GDP will receive a big boost as manufacturing and auto industry are very big. Over 70% of India is formed of middle-class families and they are the major buyers. The government should support them so as to revive the economy.